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Friday, January 26, 2007

Salaam-e-Ishq is the first movie of director Nikhil Advani. Previously, he worked in Dharma Productions and Yash Raj Films. Salaam-e-Ishq is a movie of six intertwined love stories. The characters are some how related to each other. In an interview with Komal Mehta, Nikhil talked about the movie. Being asked about the ending of the movie, Nikhil said that the movie has a very happy ending and no one dies. Nikhil was first approached by Sunil Manchanda about writing a movie with multiple love stories. At that time, Nikhil was not much interested but as soon as he started writing he understood that he should have a go with it.

Are the characters related?

Yes, they are related in a certain way.

Akshaye Khanna sits in a taxi driven by Govinda in Delhi. Akshaye is getting engaged to Ayesha Takia, the sister of Juhi Chawla. Juhi is married to Anil Kapoor, an event organiser. He calls up Priyanka Chopra, an item girl from London, to perform in Mumbai. Priyanka is connected to Salman Khan, who in turn is connected to Akshaye and Govinda.

Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar are the only couple not connected to anyone. I like to think of them like the chipmunk in Ice Age who is not connected to the main story -- but every time they come on screen, they make you laugh. I think every director likes to indulge, and these characters are my indulgences.

What are these six stories all about?

Salaam-e-Ishq has nothing to do with love and everything to do with what you should not do when in love. Salaam takes this whole notion of love being a sacred cow and flips it on its head completely. It is best summed up in one line -- 'One common problem: love.' A problem because when you're in love, you know it's a problem. It's a problem you can't live without and the only solution to it is also love. The only way to handle love is to love more.

The characters are simple. We have a taxi driver, an ambitious man, an item girl, a couple looking to elope, a man facing mid-life crisis and his wife, a commitment phobic man and his girlfriend, a girl looking for love and an American.

While writing the character of taxi driver Nikhil had Govinda in mind and Salman Khan was the first person he approached to. Secondly, he went to Akshay Khanna. Salman even suggested Nikhil to take Govinda. Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar are used as comic relives in the movie. However, the most favorite couple in this movie is John Abraham and Vidya Balan. Vidya plays the character of a practical Indian woman and John is a boy who has this journey from boyhood to manhood and Vidya looks after him. Salaam-e-Ishq has been released today and the title song of the movie has been very popular and the couples are well accepted by the public. Let’s see how they react to the movie.